We are to consider largely then in Philippians, chapter 1, and particularly, verse 21; the epistle to the Philippians, chapter 1, and verse 21. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The Apostle Paul was in prison in Rome, because of his faithfulness in his testimony to Christ, and he’s writing this letter to the Philippians from prison. And you’ll notice that there is very little about his physical conditions in the prison. What he is more concerned about are the spiritual implications of his imprisonment, and the effect of his imprisonment upon the cause of Christ, and upon the church of Christ. That was just typical of the apostle—he went through so many trials. And when you read the list of his trials, you can feel that any one of them would have been enough for one man to endure, and yet, he was not complaining about his troubles. His concern was, What effect will these experiences of mine have on the cross of Christ; in what way will they contribute to the cause of Christ? And he tells us here that, in response to the prayers of God’s people, and by the enabling of His Holy Spirit, he expects and he hopes that Christ would be glorified in his body, whether he lives or whether he dies. And this is what he was longing for, and this is what he was expecting, by the grace of God, that Christ would be magnified, by every member of his body, as well as by every faculty of his soul, by everything that has happened to him in his experience here, by his life, and by his death. And isn’t that the expectation and the hope that should be entertained by every one of God’s people, that whatever happens to us, that all our experiences would contribute to the honoring of the name of Christ? Now he entertained that desire and hope, because, he says, “to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This is what encourages him to hope that Christ would be magnified in his life and in his death. Christ is so precious to him that his whole life is bound up with Christ, and death itself is gain to him, because death will give him more of Christ, and death will enable him to glorify Christ in a way that’s beyond his experience here.
Now there are one or two things that we would like to look at from this expression, “to be, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And in passing, we might notice first, how close is the proximity of life and death in the thought of the apostle, and how true to reality that is, there is but a step between us and death. And it’s very striking, when you look at the biographies or notes concerning people who have gone before, you see the name, and in brackets afterwards, something like, 1811, hyphen, 1870, and there with a hyphen between them is the year of birth and the year of death. And how true, when one looks at it from the perspective of time, and especially from the perspective of eternity, how close are birth and death—how near always in our thinking are life and death.
Another thing that we notice, just in passing, is, that the kind of death we die is dependent upon the kind of life we live. There is a direct connection between the life we’re living and the death we will die. Now as far as the temporal aspects of that death are concerned, well, one event happens to all, and some of the Lord’s people pass through much more trying circumstances in life and in death than many of the ungodly do. Don’t let that trouble us in the least. As far as these things go, it makes no difference whatsoever to the fact that the life of the Christian leads to a death which is infinitely blessed, and which leads on to eternal glory. There’s a verse in the book of Revelation which says, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; he that is holy, let him be holy still (Rev. 22:11), pointing out to us that there’s a continuation between what we are in our lives, and what we shall be in our death, and in our eternity. As we live, so will we die.
But we might pass on to notice, what kind of life it is that leads to a death which is gain? The apostle says, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And here he indicates the kind of life that leads to a death which is gain. “To me to live is Christ.” And how closely these words are found in our text, “to live,” and “Christ.” There’s not even the word “is” between them. You’ll notice in the Authorized Version, how the “is” is in italics. And that’s one of the great benefits of the Authorized Version, that it does indicate those words which were put in for the sake of conveying meaning to us, and it shows us that, literally, what it is saying is, “to me life Christ.” Life and Christ are synonymous to the Apostle Paul. The life of the Christian is a life bound up with Christ—a life of union with Christ. That is true of the covenant of grace. When God parted out His people from all eternity, when God perfectly blessed them, when God planned their salvation, all His thoughts concerning them were bound up with Christ Jesus. He did not think of them apart from Christ, and He didn’t think of Christ apart from them. Isn’t that something that underlines how firm is our salvation? It’s grounded in the fact that, from all eternity, in the thoughts of God, Christ and His people were inseparably one. That’s what came to expression when the Son of God came into this world. Why did He come? Why was He born? Why did He live, and why did He die as He did? Not because of anything personal to Himself, but because of His union with His people. It’s the union between Christ and His people that accounts for the incarnation of the Son of God, for His life of obedience, and for His atoning death, and for His resurrection. And it’s that same union which is coming to expression when a sinner is called effectually by the grace of God. Effectual calling—the calling of the Holy Spirit, which regenerates us, unites us to Christ. It makes the union that’s in the covenant a personal and a living thing in our experience. And that’s what lies at the foundation of the life we have, that Christ and us are bound together in bonds which can never be broken. Now, for a person for whom that is true, Christ and life are synonymous—to live is Christ. He means, I think, three things: that he is living on Christ, and he is living like Christ, and he is living for Christ, and especially, in this context, the third of these meanings. “To live is Christ,” means, I am living upon Him; I owe my life to Him; I owe my justification to Him; and I owe my sanctification to Him. And that’s the life of the Christian, summed up in these two great blessings: justified and made righteous in relation to God; sanctified by being given the Spirit of God and the new life of obedience to Him. We owe that entirely to Christ. And the person for whom that is true, is living by faith upon Him. The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who love me, and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20). It’s a life of faith on Christ, trusting in Him, relying upon Him to be all our salvation, and to be all that we need in relation to God, and it’s a life of communion with Him. I think that’s the essential element of a Christian life. Whatever we have to do, whatever we have to be, as Christians, what is at the very heart of the Christian life is a real personal relationship with Christ—a coming and a going between ourselves and Christ by faith, by love, by desires, by prayer, by Him giving us the influences of His Spirit, and the consciousness of His presence. The Christian life is not something of mere routine; the Christian life is a life of living communion and fellowship with Christ. The Christian lives on Christ. Christ is everything to him, and all his happiness and all his hopes are bound up with the Savior.
But also, when he says, “to me to live is Christ,” he is saying that he desires to live like Christ. Christ and life—what is life? What is the kind of life ought I to live? What kind of person ought I to be? What kind of thoughts ought I to have, and what kind of words ought I to speak, and what kind of actions ought I to perform? And the answer to all these questions is found in Christ, “to live Christ,” that Christ would be found in me, that Christ would be the pattern of my life, that my life would reflect His life. That is what is required of Christians, and that is what Christians desire, although they bemoan continually what a large distance there is between Christ and them. It makes us ashamed, even to think that Christ is our pattern, when we look at what we have. And yet, that is the aim, that is the desire, and that is the endeavor. And that is what makes heaven so attractive—that we shall be with Him, and when we shall see Him, we shall be like Him. Can you imagine being like Christ? And yet that is the expectation and the hope, and that is the prospect before every poor believer. There’s a day coming when there will be no difference at all, in character and in conduct, between Christ and you and me, if we are Christians. He’ll be the infinitely glorious, exalted Son of God, far removed from us in His Person, in that respect, but as far as His manhood is concerned, He is the pattern, and that is what Christian life will be, when Christian life reaches its fulfillment. “To live is Christ”—to live on Him, to live like Him, and to live for Him; to live for the glory and the honor of His name—that’s the main concern of the apostle here, that Christ shall be magnified in my body. The Christian is the only person in all the world who has an aim in life which is sufficient for life, and which can be carried on without any amendment into eternity, and be sufficient in eternity too. As the Shorter Catechism tells us, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” And as God has revealed Himself in Christ, the Christian wants supremely to live a life which honors Him, and which shows the world not how great the Christian is, but how great Christ is. That’s our ambition and our motivation, which is greatly to be desired, so that whatever we do, and whatever we say, and whatever we think, that we would be aiming at the Lord Jesus Christ being exalted, and ourselves and others coming to worship Him, and serve Him, and honor Him as God. That should be our aim when we come to the public means of grace; that should be our aim in our family worship and our private worship; that should be our aim when we eat or when we drink, or whatsoever we do—that Christ would be manifested as a great God and a great Savior. And I think there’s that in every Christian’s life, in every Christian’s heart, in spite of all his failings, that makes him want to see Christ honored, whatever becomes of himself. That was the way with the Apostle Paul. He didn’t care about his reputation. People could say what they liked about him, they could do what they liked to him—they could put him in prison, they could tie him up with chains, they could call him whatever they wanted to call him, but he was very concerned that he would do nothing and say nothing that would bring any reproach upon the name of Christ, but that rather, what he said and did would show forth His praises. “To me to live is Christ.” I cannot live without Him; He is all my salvation. He is the pattern of my living. And He is the One who’s glory is what gives my life its meaning and its direction. I think these are some of the things that are involved in the expression of the apostle, “To me to live is Christ.”
Now, we notice then that for a person to whom that is true, that “to die is gain.” Now Paul was a great realist, and there was no mere sentimentality about him. So we could say things like that sometimes, without really understanding what they mean, and without really meaning them. Paul was not like that. Death was a great invasion of human life and experience, according to Paul—a horrible thing which has invaded God’s creation as a result of sin, and as a result of the curse, and there is nothing attractive about it whatsoever, and no Christian should ever think that he has to try somehow to imagine or believe that there is something good in death! There is nothing good in death! It is the last enemy! It is a separation between what God has joined together—the soul and body of His creatures! It is something that would have no place in human experience, were it not for sin! And you’ll remember how the Apostle Paul brings that out so clearly writing to the Corinthians. He’s looking forward to heaven, and he knows he has to go through the experience of death to get to heaven, and not wanting to be unclothed, he said, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. There is nothing attractive about death in itself. It’s the king of terrors, it’s the last enemy. But the Christian can look at death in the context of what Christ has done to death, and what Christ does through the death of His people, and the glory that that death leads to pardon. Death is the great enemy which comes to intimate the curse to the ungodly, to usher them into a lost eternity. What a terrible thing is the death of a Christless sinner! One moment, living without God in the world, and the next moment, cast away from Him forever! But oh, what a blessing death becomes to the people of God, because the death of the Christian is something that is not able separate Him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. The death of the Christian is something which has been given to him as a gift by God. All things are yours! Christ is yours! Life is yours! Death is yours! It’s for your advantage. It’s for your benefit. It is the messenger that is sent to usher you into the presence of your Lord and your Savior. “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” It’s great advantage. How can that be?
Well, of course, death puts an end to sin, and it puts an end to temptation in the experience of the Christian. That itself is a wonderful thing. The poor Christian who has been struggling against temptation and sin all his days since he was converted, in the moment of death, his soul is made perfect in holiness—perfect in holiness, not a spot of sin about him anymore. The end of sinning, the end of temptation, the end of imperfection, the end of the weariness, the end of the affliction, the end of the trials which we often experience in the Christian way, no more conflict with the world or the flesh or the devil. The beginning of perfect communion with Christ, perfect fellowship with Him, perfect likeness to Him, perfect service, perfect worship. When we shall see Him, we shall be like Him. And even in the moment of death, the soul of the Christian is brought into the presence of Christ. You’ll remember what the Lord Jesus said to the thief on the cross, He said, “To day thou shalt be with me in paradise.” You’re not going to go to sleep and be unconscious for hundreds of thousands of years till the resurrection. This very moment, this very day, you and I will be together in the presence of God. Death is gain, because it makes Christ more real to us, and more near to us than He ever was in our experience here. We can depend more completely upon Him, we can be perfectly like Him, and we can live perfectly of His glory. Of course, there’s a step beyond death. There’s something even better than the death of the saints. And that is the glorious resurrection. They shall rise with bodies made perfect and resembling the glorified body of Jesus, as well as having souls that are perfect in holiness. But as far as the present is concerned, as far as the experience of reality in this world now is concerned, the Christian loses nothing in the day of his death. Other people lose everything—everything they lived for, everything they worked for, everything they loved, everything they valued slips through their fingers in the moment of death! Isn’t that an awful thought? That people are living their lives in this world for the things of time and sense, and in a moment, the things they have labored so much for slip from their grasp, so that death is loss to them. But it’s gain to the Christian. Because of what he loves and what he values and what he depends upon, he will have more of in the world to come than he ever had here—more of Christ, and more of the ability to be like Christ, and to be for Christ throughout eternity. We can’t help looking at it from this side, but it’s a wonderful thing to be able to look just beyond the experience of dying, and to realize that, even while Christians here are sorrowing over those who fell asleep in Jesus, these very persons are full of the joys and pleasures that are at God’s right hand forevermore. “To me to live is Christ,” and because of that, “to die is gain.” There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord—nothing. And that’s what makes it possible to look forward with hope. I remember hearing of the woman who told one of the old worthies of how she got deliverance from the fear of death. She said, “It’s written in the Bible, He has the keys of death and of hell, and if He has the keys, then His face will be the first that I will see.” And that is something to think of. Something to encourage and strengthen believers. We shouldn’t be worried too much about how it will be with us in death, as long as Christ is our life, as long as we’re living on Him, and endeavoring by grace to live like Him and for Him, we can be sure that we’ll discover in that moment, that the grace that brought us to that point will carry us safely through. Well then, the question for us is, what does Christ mean to us? What think ye of Christ? If he’s all your salvation, and all your desires, you can leave yourself in His hands for time and for eternity. But it’s a different matter if Christ means nothing to you, because will you have in that day? What will you have when you go to meet God, if you don’t have Christ? What think ye of Christ? What does life mean to you? What does life mean to me? Is our life really bound up with Christ? That’s the only life that’s worth living—the life in which Christ is central and supreme.
Let us pray. Gracious God, may the Holy Spirit enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and may we be able to rejoice in the assurance that, if we have Christ, if Christ is ours, then there is nothing that will ever enter into our experience, not even death itself, which will be able to separate us from that love. We pray that we may be found in Christ, that Christ would be all our salvation, that He would be our righteousness, that He would be our sanctification, that He would be our redemption, that He would be all, and in all, to us, and that we would face life and death in dependence upon Him. Part us now with thy blessing, and take away sin, for Jesus sake.
— Amen.
